Windshield washing system for a windshield of an automobile

ABSTRACT

A windshield washing system for a windshield of an automobile is connected to a vessel which collects condensed water from an air conditioning system. A pump feeds the condensed water to washing nozzles arranged in front of the windshield. Collecting the condensed water largely avoids laborious manual topping up of the vessel.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a windshield washing system for a windshield of an automobile having a vessel for collecting liquid which is to be sprayed onto the windshield and having a pump for feeding the liquid to a washing nozzle for directing the liquid onto the windshield.

Such windshield washing systems are in practice used to clean lenses of headlights and/or the front windshield or rear windshield of an automobile and are thus known. In the known windshield washing systems, the vessel has a filling connector via which liquid can be added. When the vessel is virtually empty, the driver of the motor vehicle usually receives an indication to top up the liquid on the dashboard. However, this topping up process is laborious and it is possible to forget it. However, an empty vessel leads to the windshield washing system failing, and thus to an adverse effect on the safety of the automobile.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An object of the present invention is to provide a windshield washing system that overcomes the problems of the prior art and largely avoids the need to top up liquid into the vessel that holds the liquid used for washing.

The object is met according to the invention by a windshield washing system having a vessel connected to an air conditioning system of the motor vehicle and feeding means for feeding condensed water into the vessel.

As a result of this design, the condensed water produced by the air conditioning system is used to top up the vessel and can subsequently be sprayed onto the windshield. As a result, the vessel is regularly topped up while the air conditioning system is operating so that there is always liquid in the vessel, thereby largely avoiding the need to top up the vessel. A further advantage of this design is that the condensed water of the air conditioning system is generally free of salt or calcium. Therefore, disruptive calcium deposits on the edge of the windshield are largely avoided.

According to one embodiment of the invention, the vessel can be filled particularly easily by arranging a condensed water outlet of the air conditioning system above the vessel.

When there is a particularly low condensed water outlet of the air conditioning system, it is possible to ensure that the washing nozzles are supplied sufficiently with liquid at any time if a second vessel is connected via a suction line to the vessel which collects the condensed water and if the pump is designed to suck in condensed water from the vessel collecting the condensed water, as a function of the filling level in the second vessel. This configuration ensures that the second vessel is sufficiently filled with condensed water via the suction line. Furthermore in this way it is possible for the vessel for collecting condensed water to be arranged at virtually any desired point in the automobile, and thus also at a particularly low point. This configuration also is suitable for retrofitting an already existing windshield washing system which does not use condensed water to form a windshield washing system according to the invention which uses condensed water.

In cold weather, the air conditioning system is frequently not switched on and thus does not produce any condensed water. However, in such weather the windshield washing system usually operates very frequently. It would be possible to consider making the vessel which is designed to collect condensed water particularly large so that condensed water collected in the summer is available for cleaning the windshield in the winter. However, this would give rise to an unnecessarily large installation space for the vessel and also a heavy weight. Reliable operation of the windshield washing system according to the invention is easily ensured in an embodiment in which the vessel which collects the condensed water or the second vessel has a filling connector for adding liquid manually. This permits alternatively filling the respective vessel manually or with the condensed water.

According to an another embodiment of the invention, reliable filling of the vessel is easily ensured by providing a filling level sensor which is connected to a control device and if the control device is designed to actuate the air conditioning system when the filling level in the vessel drops below a provided filling level. This embodiment permits the air conditioning system to be switched on exclusively for the purpose of producing condensed water even if cooling is not requested by the driver of the automobile. As a result of this configuration, apart from the vessel for the condensed water the windshield washing system does not require any further collecting vessel for water to be sprayed onto the windshield.

According to yet another embodiment of the invention, the work involved in filling the second vessel can be kept particularly low if the pump is a double acting piston pump and is designed to fill the second vessel and to feed the condensed water to the washing nozzle.

As a rule, windshield washing systems spray a mixture of water and cleaning agent and, if appropriate, anti-freezing agent onto the windshield. According to another embodiment of the invention, the addition of cleaning agent and anti-freezing agent to the condensed water which is produced by the air conditioning system is carried out easily by providing an additional vessel for an additional substance connected to a metering pump, and wherein the metering pump for feeding the additional substance is connected to the vessel.

Other objects and features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. It is to be understood, however, that the drawings are designed solely for purposes of illustration and not as a definition of the limits of the invention, for which reference should be made to the appended claims. It should be further understood that the drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale and that, unless otherwise indicated, they are merely intended to conceptually illustrate the structures and procedures described herein.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention permits numerous embodiments. In order to clarify further its basic principle, two embodiments of the invention are illustrated in the drawing and will be described below. In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing a windshield washing system according to the invention with two vessels;

FIG. 2 is a schematic sectional view of a pump for the windshield washing system according to the invention of FIG. 1; and

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a further embodiment of the windshield washing system according to the invention with a first vessel and an additional vessel.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PRESENTLY PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

FIG. 1 shows a windshield washing system for windows of an automobile with washing nozzles 2 arranged in front of the windshield 1, and an air conditioning system 3 of the automobile. Condensed water which is produced by the air conditioning system 3 is collected in a vessel 4. The vessel 4 is connected via a suction line 5 to a pump 6 which is embodied as a double acting piston pump. The pump 6 is arranged on a second vessel 7 and feeds condensed water which is collected in the vessel 4 of the air conditioning system 3 into the second vessel 7 via the suction line 5. Furthermore, the pump 6 feeds liquid from the second vessel 7 to the washing nozzles 2 via a feed line 8. In the second vessel 7 it is possible, for example, to introduce a cleaning additive or an anti-freezing agent. The second vessel 7 has an overflow 9 and a filling connector 10. If the pump 6 feeds more condensed water into the second vessel 7 than out of the second vessel 7 leading to the washing nozzles 2, excess liquid can escape via the overflow 9. When the air conditioning system 3 is inactive on a continuous basis, liquid can be added to the second vessel 7 through the filling connector 10.

FIG. 2 is a schematic view of the pump 6 which is embodied as a double acting piston pump, with adjoining regions of the second vessel 7 of the windshield washing system from FIG. 1. It is apparent here that the pump 6 is connected to the second vessel 7 via nonreturn valves 11, 12. A displaceably guided piston 13 of the pump 6 disconnects a suction chamber 14, connected to the suction line 5, from a pressure chamber 15 connected to the feed line 8. The feed line 8 and the suction line 5 are also connected to the pump 6 by means of nonreturn valves 16, 17. If the piston 13 of the pump 6 is moved from the illustrated position to the port for the feed line 8, the nonreturn valves 11, 12 which lead to the second vessel 7 close and condensed water is sucked in via the suction line 5. At the same time, liquid is fed via the feed line 8 to the washing nozzles 2 illustrated in FIG. 1. However, if the piston 13 is moved away from the port for the feed line 8, starting from the illustrated position, the nonreturn valves 16, 17 of the feed line 8 and of the suction line 5 close. In the process, condensed water which has been sucked in from the suction chamber 14 passes into the second chamber 7 and liquid is simultaneously sucked out of the second vessel 7 and into the pressure chamber 15.

FIG. 3 shows a further embodiment of the windshield washing system with a vessel 18, in which embodiment a control device 19 is connected to the air conditioning system 3 and to a filling level sensor 20 which is arranged in the vessel 18. The vessel 18 collects condensed water which has been produced by the air conditioning system 3. If the filling level in the vessel 18 drops below a provided filling level, the air conditioning system 3 is actuated by the control device 19 for a provided time period and produces condensed water. A simple pump 21, embodied for example as a centrifugal pump, sucks liquid out of the vessel 18 and feeds it to the washing nozzles 2. Furthermore, the control device 19 is connected to a metering pump 23 which is arranged in an additional vessel 22. An additional substance, such as cleaning fluid or anti-freezing agent, can be stored in the additional vessel 22. The metering pump 23 feeds the additional substance into the vessel 18 in which it is mixed with the condensed water from the air conditioning system 3.

Thus, while there have shown and described and pointed out fundamental novel features of the invention as applied to a preferred embodiment thereof, it will be understood that various omissions and substitutions and changes in the form and details of the devices illustrated, and in their operation, may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the invention. For example, it is expressly intended that all combinations of those elements and/or method steps which perform substantially the same function in substantially the same way to achieve the same results are within the scope of the invention. Moreover, it should be recognized that structures and/or elements and/or method steps shown and/or described in connection with any disclosed form or embodiment of the invention may be incorporated in any other disclosed or described or suggested form or embodiment as a general matter of design choice. It is the intention, therefore, to be limited only as indicated by the scope of the claims appended hereto. 

1. A windshield washing system for a windshield of an automobile, comprising: a first vessel for collecting liquid to be sprayed onto the windshield; a pump for feeding the liquid from the first vessel to a washing nozzle configured for directing liquid flowing therethrough onto the windshield; and feed means connectable to an air conditioning system in the motor vehicle for feeding condensed water from the air conditioning system to the first vessel.
 2. The windshield washing system of claim 1, further comprising a condensed water outlet of the air conditioning system, wherein the condensed water outlet of the air conditioning system is arranged above said first vessel.
 3. The windshield washing system of claim 1, further comprising a second vessel and a suction line connecting the second vessel to the first vessel, wherein the pump is configured to draw condensed water from the first vessel.
 4. The windshield washing system of claim 1, wherein the first vessel has a filling connector for receiving liquid manually.
 5. The windshield washing system of claim 1, wherein the first vessel has a filling level sensor and a control device connected to the filling level sensor, and wherein the control device is configured to actuate the air conditioning system when the filling level in said first vessel drops below a minimum filling level.
 6. The windshield washing system of claim 3, wherein the pump is a double acting piston pump configured to fill the second vessel and feed the condensed water to the washing nozzle.
 7. The windshield washing system of claim 1, further comprising an additional vessel for an additional substance, a metering pump connected between the first vessel and the additional vessel and configured to feed the additional substance to the first vessel.
 8. The windshield washing system of claim 3, wherein at least one of the first vessel and the second vessel has a filling connector for receiving liquid manually.
 9. The windshield washing system of claim 3, wherein the pump is configured to draw in condensed water from the first vessel as a function of the filling level in the second vessel. 